Coast 2 Coast advice

i'm planning to follow the route from st bees to robin hoods bay and was wondering if any one had done it. the plan is to bivi out every night so i have to carry everything i need, obviously i can refill water bottles in some of the towns i pass.

A mate and I are planning to do the English C2C over four days and staying in hostels/inns on the route. We're doing it self supported so will still be carrying kit.

Respect for doing it over 3 days - whilst the daily distances are achievable even for me, the thought of getting up on legs which still haven't recovered and carrying on for three more days is becoming daunting (its only just over 5 weeks away now), especially with the baptism of fire that the lakes is going to provide.

Our plan is to make day 1 the shortest distance-wise as from the map it looks like the most difficult terrain. We are using a variation based on the wheelwright route which we felt would make it more achievable, our plans is:
Day 1 St Bees to Glenridding
Day 2 Glenridding to Swaledale
Day 3 Swaledale to North York Moors
Day 4 North York Moors to Robin Hood's Bay

Part of the fun is planning daily distances which we feel we can achieve and setting the goals, working out what to carry and what we do and don't need. We did consider using a packhorse service but that seemed to defeat the object.

Getting back to the start to pick up the car has been the hardest part to organise.

We have carried some kit on that route
And done it supported by packhorse travel
It is much more enjoyable without a lot of kit, the lakes side is hard riding and the Yorkshire side long days which can be boggy
We did it in 5 days, bAnd b

it's being done for charity so we need to make it a challenge hence why we have set 3 days. the plan is to ride the lakes section without any kit and collect it at ambleside.

I used to be in the army so i can survive with very few items, bivi bag, basher and a small fuel burning stove, clean socks, baselayers and liners for everyday. a change of top half clothes. then boil in the bag main meals. kendal mintcake, sweets etc. i'm planing on getting this into a 30 liter back pack. water, first aid kits and spares spread across the group.

Seems like more of a challenge doing it with out someone carrying your kit.

any advice on route? i'm looking at black sail pass but there are other options available, do i go over gaatesgarth or go the longsledale route to tebay?

Hmm... little bit late for me to start thinking about a packhorse now I suspect. Part of the problem is the limited time we have to do it (I have family commitments and part of the reason we chose 4 days and not 5 is that is all I'm allowed). Using a packhorse seemed to mean adding an extra day to one end or the other, or both since they seemed to be based around Kirkby Steven or Reeth and that adds extra time getting to the start and back from the end.

I hadn't considered picking kit up on the way, how are you going to manage that Phil?

The route we have chosen avoids black sail/hardknott and (from memory) takes the bridleway up past Floutern tarn then up over Honnister pass from Buttermere, over Greenup edge to Grasmere then up over Fairfield to Patterdale. It's not Weelwrights route but we rejoin that around Shap on the second day.

thats a similar alternative i have mind instead of black sail, but the route i have takes me down to ambleside, we know someone who lives in ambleside so stuff is being dumped there.hoping to make sadgill by end of the first day, maybe even a little further

Ambleside, and an opportunity to ride the Loughrigg Terrace bridleway? It would have been nice to include that but we can't do everything and we had to go with places we could get accommodation in the end. When are you going Phil? 5 weeks tomorrow is when our expedition starts. Fingers crossed for good weather!

Did this 12 years ago the Tony Woodcock (Wheelwrights)way in 4 days but had camping stuff driven on for us. St Bs - Boot, Boot - Shap, Shap - Osmotherley, Os - RHB. Shap to Os was horrendous (86 mile) in the days of hard tails and short travel. One of my all time epic ventures and well worth the efforts. Crack on!

I carried all my own stuff but stayed in bunkhouses, which I'm glad I did as the weather really turned, you'll be going some to do it in 3 days, 4 was tough enough the first day will be the hardest over blacksail, its a real slog in bad weather

I did the Wheelright route in three days with a guy off here a few years back, but we did have another guy off here drive a nice big white van for us. (He was supposed to ride too but did his back).

St Bee's --> Ambleside --> Danby Wiske --> Robin Hood's Bay.

1st day was surprisingly easy (and gave us a lot of over-confidence). 2nd day was mechanical after mechanical, followed by bog-trotting for over an hour across ****ing Mosesdale (twice I've been there, twice I've never wanted to see the dismal spot again), and finally being told by our driver at 10 pm just short of Richmond that he was driving us to Danby after getting us a Chinese. 3rd day he dropped us back where we left off, I had a major sense of humour failure with a caravan just before Osmotherly that nearly ended in tears (but did demonstrate I had some energy left after all), then we made it over the North York Moors and nearly stacked it in the dark down the highstreet of RHB.

Would I do it again? YES

Would I want to do it in more than three days? I didn't want to see a bike again for a month afterwards - if I'd had to get on it for another day I may have thrown it under the van.

Will I ever be fit enough to do it again? Doubtful

And great to see you remembered to take pics, Rich, We only managed about three on the entire trip!

Off the bike I wear a short sleeve merino that I used as base layer for riding, gortex and tracksters and use the washing facilities at B&B. Merino sox's dry almost instantly. Im pretty fit so a power bar seems me through and or I grab any food I can on the way. My main concession is that I aim to do my long distance stuff in good weather as I want to enjoy the route.

Was a great trip group of six with two that struggled for fitness but we sort of bullied them along.Did not stop us having a round each on the first two nights! the third night we were just glad to get shelter.Living in the Lakes now so planning on doing there and back in 7 days should be doable on my own and using all my old cycling gear and binning it going along.
Bike maintaince is cruical we had a 3 hr mechanical hope freewheel diintergrated luckily a backstreet bike shop in Ambleside sorted us out and we sent the slowest 3 away we caught them in the god forbidden place that is Shap!